To celebrate Malaysia Day, Google Malaysia’s homepage is featuring the artwork of 16-year old Lee Yee Run. The artwork, known as the “Beauty of Malaysia”, features national symbols like the KL Tower, a hibiscus (Malaysia’s national flower), the Twin Towers, among other national icons. The artwork will be the day’s Google Doodle, an interpretation of the Google logo that celebrates holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists who have marked culture.

Yee Run is a student from SMJK Yoke Kuan in Sekinchan, Selangor. He won the top prize in the 16-17 years old category, and the overall grand prize that puts him on the Google homepage for the day. He suggested that Malaysians should take time to step out, travel to the attractive local spots, discover, and embrace the true and unique colors of Malaysia, even when we may get caught up in the hassle of our daily lives.

Image Credit: The Strait times/Asia

The other category winners include Vaisnawi Harulnathan of SJKG Vallambrosa, Klang (7-9 year old category), Chin Joe Yi of SJK (C) Kwang Hwa, Penang (10-12 year old category) and Mohammed Anoof Ibrahim of Mutiara International Grammar School, Ampang (13-15 year old category). Their beautiful artwork can be seen on Malaysia’s Doodle 4 Google winners page.

Malaysia Day is a public holiday (Sept 16) that marks the day when Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore joined to form Malaysia in 1963. This was the the first Doodle 4 Google competition held in Malaysia, and was geared towards finding the most artistic and creative Malaysia-centric doodle. The competition was themed “Malaysia to me is…” in conjunction with Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

The competition was launched in April this year, and it encouraged all Malaysian primary and secondary school students to participate. It was also promoted by DIGI.com Bhd, Teach for Malaysia and Petrosains.

Other Category Winners (Image Credit: Doodle 4 Google Malaysia)

The winning doodles were sieved out through a two-step process that involved the artworks being scrutinized by Googlers and voted on by netizens. The Google Malaysia’s managing director Sajith Sivanandan told Star News: “The team worked hard to shortlist and curate 20 doodle designs that best embodied imagination and creativity, the two traits we value highly at Google. The best were then listed for public online voting throughout the month of August”.

The “Beauty of Malaysia” will now join the Google Doodle hall of fame among other Malaysia-centric Doodles, like the 2013 Elections, Yasmin Ahmad’s 56th birthday, and the 57th Merdeka Day doodle drawn by artist Red Hong Yi.